This new variety of lily plant originated as a seedling selected from a group of seedlings planted by me at Sandy, Oreg., with seeds from a hybrid of my breeding efforts and resulting from my crossing the clonal cultivar `Connecticut King` as the seed parent with the clonal cultivar `Croesus` as the pollen parent, my object being to achieve the production of lilies in shades of gold and orange well suited to forcing for cut flower production out-of-season with such a variety of forcing time requirements that production may be accomplished throughout the year.
This particular seedling was selected for propagation and test because of its unusual broad tepalled flower form and clean, attractive coloration, and the selected seedling was asexually reproduced by me at Sandy, Oreg., by bulb scale propagation with such satisfactory results that successive generations were produced under my direction by bulb scale propagation and by natural propagation from bulblets and this work clearly demonstrated that the novel and distinctive characteristics of this new lily variety would hold true under asexual propagation from generation to generation and appeared to be firmly fixed.
The large size of the flowers of this new lily variety with their broad tepals and vivid gold-orange coloration with a complete lack of spotting appears to be a color pattern unique in this type of lily. In addition, the clone possesses to a high degree the desirable characteristics of hybrid vigor, great hardiness, and disease resistance, and work with this new variety has shown it to be well suited to forcing out-of-season when the bulbs are dug at the appropriate time and properly precooled. October-dug bulbs, properly precooled and potted in January, will flower under glass in western Oregon in an average of eighty to eighty-eight days with no supplementary lighting and at moderate greenhouse temperatures. Also, the clone is vigorous and a good grower and propagator, as observed at Sandy, Oreg.